Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades: A Constructivist Approach

Building on the success of previous editions, Social Studies for the Elementary and Middle Grades provides the structure of the knowledge to be learned, strategies to help students attain more control of their own learning, and models for translating theory and recent research into lesson plans and units for teaching 21st century diverse learners. Not only does the text guide pre-service teachers to teach social studies within a constructivist framework, but it also models that framework of guided inquiry in the organization of each chapter. Every chapter begins with an exploratory activity that challenges students to remember and reflect on their prior knowledge on the chapter's topic, moves into the more teacher-guided phase where students find explanations and activities that develop their understanding and social studies pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and ends in an expansion phase in which students must apply the main ideas of the chapter to other school and life contexts.